Israeli air raid on gaza strip kills Palestinian: medics

Sabtu, 23 Juni 2012 06:46 WIB | 1.876 Views

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (ANTARA News/AFP) - One Palestinian was killed and two were wounded on Friday, one seriously, when Israeli warplanes struck east of Al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

They named the dead man as Bassem Ahmad, 29, who was of no known affiliation.

Israeli aircraft "targeted a terrorist squad during preparations to fire a rocket at Israel from the central Gaza Strip. A hit was identified," the military said in a statement.

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets that hit southern Israel, without causing casualties or damage.

The violence came despite a tenuous Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza`s Hamas rulers that was announced on Wednesday evening by the Islamists` Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades military wing after a flurry of deadly exchanges in and around the territory.

The latest round of Israeli attacks and Palestinian retaliation began with air strikes on Monday morning, just hours after gunmen from Sinai carried out an ambush along Israel`s southern border with Egypt, killing an Israeli civilian.

Israel has said that its sudden spike in Gaza operations -- three deadly air raids in just over 12 hours earlier this week -- was "in no way related" to the border incident, with the military saying the air force was targeting militants about to attack the Jewish state.

Since Monday, more than 130 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel, one of which slammed into a border police post just north of Gaza, wounding four people.

The Hamas military wing said on Thursday that it had fired 120 rockets, a rare show of force from the Islamist group that had previously been observing a de facto truce.